Innocently traversing
Over soft powder snow
Relishing in it
Wonderland encapsulates
Then turns consumes
All goodwill
Rescue
Take me down easy
Off this great peak
To safety, warmth
Care and respite
For a time
Being with you
Was being with me
But now I sigh
Love endlessly
Over goodbyes
Slippery cocktail
Equal parts
Foolish and brave
My invisible audience
Tells me don't dare
Taken aback by you
Yet delighted
Making something
Out of nothing
Just to have
To hold onto
My magic trick
All that I dreamed
Became possible
And yet, I was
A fraud, cruel
I had wanted to do
All this with you
When asked do I still
Write every day
I resume to fall
In love again
Need not be held
In our arms
To be any less real
The singular purpose
-beers bars nights-
Spending time
Though poor and hungry
This love of mine
Grateful offerings
Not asking for more
Yet nothing else will do
Cold War
Shelves half empty
Company of friends
Hard and humbling
Long sessions of joy
Laced with sadness
Longing
A decade of wondering
Ahead of me
Wishing for the truth
Holding ideal
Measuring others by it
Haters try to eradicate
Difference in history
Hold onto belief
Not discard identity
Tenuous grasp
Did we cover sufficiently?
Were you lightened
Or do you carry heavily?
If only you knew
How beautiful your
Spirituality
I could kiss it
It saved me from wiping out
Faith in humanity
You say little with
Much passion
It is wonderful to me
Here, the heart of it
Finally
I love your love
Of everything
I miss being near
Hearing it
Turning to mush
Ever since you took
Us on a journey
To the West
To the dunes
No control
Over this
There was an 'us'
Just once it escaped
Your lips
Till you put it
Back in though
Typed into my mind
Thoughts of you
A warm blanket
I put it on again
This night
As the snow illuminates
Under a full moon
My eyes on mountain
Looming over us
Yours on horizon
I could not sit
In the shadow
Of past loves
Like Ossa in a storm
Slippery slope
A snippet of things
I know
Cannot climb
Nor run away
At the base of
This landmark
Time in my life
I stake a claim
I write our names
Open door
Welcome mat
Room for you and me
To be family
One day
Set us free
Title:'The Love That Dares' Letters of LGBTQ+ Love and Friendship Through History by Smith and Vesey.
Poem is an erasure poem from author's own.
Ultimate high riding
Kite sky surfing
Wind breaks over peaks
Flips gusting breeze
How did we get here?
Can't stay up all day
All night all week
Take me down easy
If only wings sprung
From sides I'd carry on
Forever though this body
Not made for flight
Eyes windwash tears
Mouth dries anxieties
Soft landing nice idea
Bumps, scratches, bleed
In tact relatively
My parachute covers me
In remote wilderness
Keeps me warm and safe
New ground better place
Love like a high
Heavy and light
Are our thoughts
Day and night
If I could weigh
And equate to
Gold bullion
Guard all the ones
That are one
In a million
Though precious
The arms that
Once little now grow
Will one day
Set sail on
Horizons unknown
So if in the cold
Dark dead of the night
A single rare thought
Keeps me warm, light
Alive
My companion in all
Of the difficult times
It knows me so
Intimately
No doubt is mine
This one sits high
On a lofty white throne
I sit alongside
Never troubled alone
So laden with dreams
Of fantastical places
Magical touch
Silence fills spaces
To carry such treasure
Might surely be tired
Instead the effect is
Remarkably light
So clearly when sitting
Right here next to me
This one a fine woman
So now
Let it be
Never an original
Thought comes to mind
For centuries since
The beginning of time
So common it is
Now a stereotype
A woman on spying
A love new and true
Is believed so little
Because of her youth
Particularly when
The one whom affected
Is wiser so knows
Fleeting feelings persuade
A woman resists taking
Younger as lovers
Yet men seem to know
What a good thing this is
If only said woman
Could see her own beauty
Not wonder how any
Adores as she is
Women love women
For all of their lines
Boundaries upheld
Battles survived
Soft touch renders
Familial places
Kind eyes and tender
Lips speak of her graces
It's always raining somewhere
On this island state of heart and mind
Soothing cadence wakes me
Just as dawn breaks
Through the glass
Some look up and say
'No, not again'
Wince and cringe to feel its touch
As if in constant pain
While reaching for clean cup
To sip cool clear water
Its precious gift of life
Nonsensical to resent
As clouds of reasoning
Gather, muster all their strength
Across the wild blue yonder west
I prepare myself my clothing
Covering over my head
To keep warm thoughts in
Not shy of getting wet
A reservoir of feelings
Have overflowed in me
How it weighs more than
Anything on earth
As if pinned by boulders yet
As a child I was lavished
Floated entranced night and day
Even the rain on the surface
Tickled my nose as I inhaled
My young ones now are well and safe
As I sit happily smiling
Even on grey ghost sky days
The forecast may change
But one thing remains
Thoughts of her a spring
Clear, calm, collected
Love like rain
A simple picnic basket
With lemon coloured plates
Enamel handled spoons
Snuggled lie in wait
To carry a delicious bite
Of lemon flavoured cake
While staring over line
Of sky and sea where
Seal mates play
A line exists between
Though hard to see by eye
Some making waves between
When the forecast
Says to wait
So a patient sailor sits
In doldrums eating cake
Until such time fair winds
Return and she'll be
On her way
Rely on mountain weather
To restore fair winds
Set free
Or cloud the fixing points
Lost and biding
In the lee
The journey from horizon
Just as landfall
Kisses eyes
To longing pinnacle
With sea swept bellyache
Is nor the kind of journey
One would wish to take
A sweetheart watching
From on high
Might surely meet
Halfway
However far off course
A straggling current takes
Surely always carry her
Wherever body wakes
Who makes a B Line
Following rays to pollen
When the honey is at home
The thrill of the chase
Beeing with the swarm
Senses wake by morn
Out the door
To wonder sorely
Where to go
Who with today?
Knowing always
She sits at home waiting
Not to say a thing
The sweetest to see
Yet the joy is in
The making
Oh to make a B Line
For her every single day
Leaving the buzz and rush
To hive and hibernate
A smoke screen
Makes us drowsy
So we forget to love
Wholeheartedly
Flee for time being
Glory of alluring
Garden variety
My queen and I
A tale of modern peril
Our cup receives all
Gobstopper sized marbles
Stress weighs us all
Next fit the shiny
Glittery gems
The friends and family
Who never hem in
Sift through the cracks
The sensory spaces
Fine sand of stories
A treasure of faces
When life's limitations
Walls cold hard and thin
One love pours over
Holds everything in
What if looks could revive
We are found in the dark
Blinded by sight
No tricks up the sleeve
Memories guide
Senses won't believe
Words come easy
On sips of wine
Silence speaks
How you are mine
Count the stars of heaven 